Super Simple Tuscan Tomato Sauce

 

 

One night I was going to make a recipe I found for Tuscan tomato sauce for dinner.  Then, as I was reading the recipe, I realized it was basically just my Parmesan sauce recipe with tomatoes in it.  Then, I thought of this idea...  Why not just use a jar of that Alfredo sauce and puree some fresh tomatoes with it? 

 

So, I tried it, and it was actually pretty good and SO easy!!  It would even be good if you threw in some fresh basil to puree with it too...  It is like pretend gourmet!  :)

 

Super Simple Tuscan Tomato Sauce Recipe:

 

1 jar of Alfredo sauce

1 large tomato (or however many depending how strong you want it)

A few fresh basil leaves (optional)

 

 

1.  Put your tomato in your food processor, (and basil if using) and pour over some Alfredo sauce.  Puree until smooth.  Pour the remaining Alfredo sauce in medium sauce pan and mix in pureed mixture.  Heat over medium heat until heated through. 

 

2.  Serve over your choice of pasta or ravioli.

Chicken Pasta Salad

When we lived in Maryland, one of my friends made this for a girls night out, and  I've been making it ever since.  You can add or subtract what you like!  It's a great summer meal!

Chicken Pasta Salad Recipe

Cooked Chicken breast diced

Mini Bow tie pasta (I only had the big kind to use when I made the above)

Grapes cut in half

Celery diced

Onion minced

Pineapple (you can totally leave this out, sometimes I use it sometimes I don't)

Cole Slaw Dressing to your liking

Mix it all together and enjoy!!

This was my first introduction into cole slaw dressing!  Marzetti makes the best kind!  (bottom left in picture)

The above dressings you find in the cold produce section.  They have a non refrigerated kind as well, but the one above is better, and it's all natural - can't beat that!

I'm going to give away one of my secret ingredients right now...  I used to make my own sauce for cole slaw, potato salad, and chicken salad (I still do occasionally), but this cole slaw dressing makes it fabulous as well!!  Use it for any of the recipes above!!  Everyone has loved it when I use it!!!  So easy, and so yummy!!  It's the perfect summer sauce!

Meal Planning

After being married for 9.5 years, I've finally figured out a good meal planning system that works for me. 

It is nothing complicated or fancy by any means - but, it works!

How I do it:

1.  At the beginning of the month, I plan meals for the entire month.  I write them on my white board which hangs on a large bulletin board in my kitchen.  It's ugly, but it helps keep my family organized.  I've tried hanging it out of site, but it doesn't work, I have to be able to look at!

2.  When I plan my meals, I refer to our family calendar and try to plan easy meals or plan to have leftovers on busy nights. 

3.  I then make a list of all the ingredients that I need to buy for that month.  I don't necessarily go out and buy all the ingredients in one shopping trip, but I save the list to refer to to see what I still need to buy.  I do try to plan meals with ingredients I have on hand.  

4.  Sometimes I want to change my mind, or we decide to have someone  over for dinner, and we want to change what was planned.  Since it's on a white board, I simply erase it and put the scheduled one on another night, or at the end or beginning of the calendar to know to put it on for the next month.  

Here are our meals from February:     (I linked up the recipes that are posted on this blog)

Sausage Bean Chowder
Wendy's Copy Cat Chili
Pancakes
Super Bowl Party Spread
Crab stuffed baked tomatoes
Tuna Salad
Lasagna
Pizza
Peppercorn London Broil
Thanksgiving Casserole
Turkey Sopa
Vegetarian Stuffed Peppers
Chicken Gnocchi Soup
Zuppa Toscana Soup
Skillet Gnocchi
Sauerbraten
Fish
Spaghetti
Sweet and Sour Pork Stir Fry

So I only cooked 19 dinners for a whole month.  I try to cook to have leftovers.   Seven of those dinners were new recipes.  More if you include some of the food I made for the Super Bowl Party.  The only recipe that I will never make again is the crab stuffed baked tomatoes - so very very disgusting.  I'm not really sure how some of these recipes get published, but whatever... 

We only went out to eat once!  That, my friends, is a serious record for us, and only because we were out of power for 5 hours, I had even made dinner that morning, but without power we couldn't really heat it up.

What I love about this system is that I don't have to think about what to make for dinner.  In the morning I check the board, and usually start preparing for dinner so I don't have to do it during witching hours in the afternoon. 

John loves it too, because sometimes if I waited until the afternoon to decide what we were going to eat for dinner, I had run out of steam and didn't feel like making anything, so that when John got home he would have to help make dinner, or do it all by himself after I gave him a suggestion of what I had thought about preparing.  I was a little behind starting my menu planning this month as you can see from the calendar above....

I can't believe it took me so long to get a system down, but so glad I finally have!  It's so easy!!!!!  It saves me time and money.  Love it!! 

What works for you?

Pancakes

There aren't many foods that I really don't like, but pancakes happen to be one of them. Everyone has always said that my dad makes the best pancakes, and they are pretty fluffy, but I'm just not a fan of pancakes, period. I mean, I'll eat them, they just aren't my favorite.  If I eat them I like eating them with sausage and syrup, or a fruity syrup, you know, to hide that I'm eating pancakes...  However, my son, Trevan LOVES them...

A while back, I bought a bunch of whole wheat flour on sale for .99 cents a bag, which are all now expired. I am not throwing it away! So, on Monday, John helped me make a TON of pancakes out of the wheat flour to have on hand for breakfasts. It's tons cheaper than cereal, and I like that I'll already have them handy to warm up in the mornings. We have a huge freezer bag full of pancakes in the freezer. I just love the feeling of being on top of things!!

We made some with blueberries, some with chocolate chips, and some plain.  The kids didn't even say anything about them being made with wheat flour, score! 


Just a tiny portion of all the crazy pancakes!

We were visiting my brother, and my sister in law made pancakes, that I actually kind of liked.  So, I make her recipe now (while feeling like a traitor to my dad... oh well).  It's super easy!

Mary Kathryn's Pancakes

1 1/2 c. flour
3 T sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 3/4 t. baking powder

Mix the above ingredients together.  Then add the following ingredients and beat well. 

1 egg
1 1/4 c. milk
3 T. melted butter

Grease up your griddle and cook those pancakes up!  Add your favorite mix ins if desired! 
 A few things:  If you want super fluffy, light pancakes like my dad makes, you just take the egg/s in your pancake recipe and beat the egg white and egg yolk separately, then fold in your egg white to the batter at the end.  I'm just too lazy to do it, but it does make your pancakes lighter and fluffier.  I've also used buttermilk instead of milk in this recipe but there really wasn't that huge of a difference to prefer one over the other.

No need to wonder what we're having for breakfast for the next few months...  Woo Hoo!

P.S.  Here is my #1 Pancake Tip with kids:  Use a pizza cutter to cut up the pancakes (and french toast...)!  I just don't have the patience to cut it with a knife and fork.  A pizza cutter is perfect, and super duper fast and easy!  You are welcome!!



Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

I once asked my husband what his favorite foods were that I cook. He told me it was hard to decide, because I'll make something he likes, but won't make it again for two years because I experiment with new recipes so much.

A perfect example of that are these cookies. My mom made them often when I was in high school, but I have only made these maybe twice since I've been married (in eight years!), maybe... I just found this recipe tucked away, and I think it was my mom's. But, I'm not sure!!!

These cookies are dangerous!! They are so light and fluffy, (especially right out of the oven! I personally like them better warm.) you can eat ten before it feels like you have eaten one! Consider yourself warned!

Fluffy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

3/4 c. softened butter (but not melted)

1/4 c. brown sugar

3/4 c. white sugar

1 egg

1 c. canned pumpkin

2 c. flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/4 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. vanilla

1 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

In large bowl, beat butter and sugar. Add egg and beat. Add pumpkin and beat. Combine dry ingredients and add to pumpkin mixture. Stir in vanilla and chips. Scoop dough with small cookie scooper onto *greased pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 11 minutes.

*I was making cookies with some friends, and they had never seen someone grease their cookie sheet like I do. It's what my mom did, and honestly, I thought everyone did. Once you unwrap your butter to use in your baking, don't throw the wrapper away! You wipe your wrapper (butter side down) onto your cookie sheet. There is usually always enough butter remnants left to grease at least two cookie sheets. You can save your non stick spray for another time... plus it tastes a lot better than your non stick spray.

**Also, recently I made these and only had 1/2 c. of canned pumpkin in my fridge, and I went ahead and used that not even having a full cup and they turned out just fine!

Bring your favorite restaurant home!

Last week, I started making sweet and sour stir fry, and then realized I had no pineapple! I didn't feel like looking up any other recipes, or making anything else. We called our favorite Chinese food restaurant and asked if they sold their sauces; we like their hot and spicy mango dish, and wanted to add that sauce to our chicken and vegetables we already had cooking.

They gave us one pint (or was it two?) for $2.50. When John picked it up, they threw in another sauce (ginger/garlic) for free. They said, "Here, try this too." Three containers of sauce all together! I didn't even use one whole sauce container for a whole skillet full of chicken and vegetables.

I love quick little fixes like that!

Some pizza places also sell you their crust for dirt cheap, you just have to roll it out and make your own pizza!

Have a favorite Italian sauce at a restaurant? Try calling them to get some, and pour it over your own noodles. You'd be surprised how inexpensive some things may be! You can feel like you're eating out at your favorite restaurant, but for a quarter of the price!!

Are there items at certain restaurants where you've tried this? Please share!

Leftover Makeovers

I try to plan out my meals at the beginning of the week. I also try to plan my meals around what I already have in my pantry and refrigerator/freezer. I try to buy what is on sale and keep my pantry/fridge stocked with staples that I can cook meals from. On weeks I am trying to save money, or I don't have a lot of money, I try to (or am forced to) cook solely from the stock in my pantry/fridge. I also try to make a few meals out of one meal. I love leftovers, but my husband gets tired of eating them, and so does my daughter. So, I plan meals so I can makeover my leftovers.

For example, dinner at my house last week (carried over into yesterday, and lunch for today and tomorrow):

Meal #1: A whole chicken in the crock pot served with vegetables I have on hand.

Meal #2: Leftover Chicken made into a Chicken Broccoli casserole

Meal #3: Leftover Chicken made into Barbecue Chicken Pizza (I was going to make chicken salad, but John requested the pizza)

Meal #4: A big ol' pot of home made Chili

Meal #5: Leftover Chili made into Chili Cheese Cornbread Bake

And, usually we have leftovers from the leftover makeover meals. Now, I know because we have a small family we can make our meals stretch a little farther, but if you have a larger family, you can still do the same thing if you plan ahead to make larger quantities for the first meal. Those are all meals I can make with the staples I have on hand, and all inexpensive meals. Figure out what your staples are and you can do the same thing based on those. Another cheap meal is spaghetti; make a large amount, and you can turn leftovers into baked spaghetti (bake your leftover spaghetti with cheese on top), or spaghetti pie (basically lasagna with spaghetti noodles). This really helps stretch my grocery budget when I need it, and makes it really easy when I am too tired to cook, and I can just throw stuff together!

Broccoli Chicken Casserole: Reserve and strain broth from your whole chicken. In a casserole dish, add about 2 c. of shredded chicken, 1 c. of reserved broth, 1 small bag of steam fresh broccoli, 1 can cream of chicken soup, 1/2 - 1 c. sour cream, about 1 c. of cheddar cheese, 2 c. of rice or noodles, and a little bit of milk to make desired consistency. Cook at 350 degrees until bubbly and heated through (about 30 minutes). You could also add stuffing (Stove Top or homemade breadcrumbs, whatever you have on hand) on top if desired.

Chili Cheese Cornbread Bake: Put leftover chili in the bottom of a casserole dish (I use my cast iron skillet), sprinkle 1-2 c. shredded cheddar cheese over top. Make your favorite corn bread recipe, or if you are really tired, I guess you could use a cornbread mix, like Jiffy, or something. Pour your cornbread batter over top of your chili and cheese. Bake casserole at the same temperature and for the same length of time as your cornbread recipe. (Warning: If your cornbread recipe is baked at 350 degrees, I would use a higher temperature, especially if you are using a cast iron skillet, or it is going to take a long time to get the middle cooked.)

One of my biggest budget and time saver tips: Almost five years ago, I discovered the beauty of cooking with whole chickens. I stock up when they go on sale for 47, 59, or 69 cents a pound. When I cook them, I stick the whole chicken in the crock pot and can definitely make more than one meal with a one chicken. You really can't beat the price and the time it saves you. It's so easy, and crock pot cooked chicken is always so moist and yummy; no hard, dried up, or fatty pieces of gristle attached to your chicken in your foods!

Bread Dipping Spices

This is one of my favorite things I meant to include in my Gourmet Gift Basket Picks Post, but I forgot.

I love using these bread dipping spices. They are so multi-purpose, and perfect for when I feel like being a lazy cook. We love all the options we have when we are dipping our bread in olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I usually get a few dipping bowls and we have a few of the seasonings. I also use them to season vegetables or potatoes combined with olive oil to roast in the oven. So simple, and so yummy! When I cook chicken and I don't feel like thinking about how I want to season it, I just grab my dipping seasoning container, choose a flavor combination, and sprinkle away. You can also use it to marinate your meat.

Anyway, totally one of my favorite things. There are different brands, you could buy one here (which is the kind I have now). I usually buy them at Home Goods, TJ Maxx, or Marshalls. They also sell them at Sur La Table and Williams Sonoma, but they are a bit pricier there.

Season away!!